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Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Workplace wellness programs cut chronic illness costs

Wellness programs in the
workplace help cut health care costs and reduce hospital admissions for
employees with chronic illnesses, a new study suggests.

The researchers said, however, that workplace wellness programs
that focused mostly on adopting a healthier lifestyle have less dramatic
results.

"While workplace wellness programs have the potential to
reduce health risks and cut health care spending, employers and policymakers
should not take for granted that the lifestyle management components of the
programs can reduce costs or lead to savings overall," study senior author
Dr. Soeren Mattke, a senior natural scientist at RAND Corp., a nonprofit
research organization, said in a news release.

The study examined PepsiCo's Healthy Living wellness program
over the course of seven years. Among the program components are health risk
assessments and on-site wellness events. The company's wellness program also
provides help with disease and lifestyle management, as well as a hotline that
provides advice from a nurse.

The researchers assessed the experience of more than 67,000
employees who were eligible for the disease- and lifestyle-management programs.

The study, published in the January issue of the journalHealth Affairs, found that the
disease-management program alone resulted in a cost reduction of $136 per month
and a 29 percent drop in hospital admissions among its participants. The
researchers said every $1 invested in the wellness program saved $3.78 in
health care costs.

The researchers said it's
usually easier to cut costs among those who spend more. Workers in the
disease-management program who also participated in the lifestyle-management
program had much higher savings.

Targeting lifestyle programs to those employees could improve
their cost-saving benefit, the researchers said. For the full article, go to: RAND
study

1 comment:

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